Just loved Nicole and Declan’s story in Chatemup. Great characters, storyline and serious chemistry between these two as they discover themselves together and apart through their many adventures. Gives hope for HEA for us all.

Oh My Gosh! This standalone book from one of my favorite authors has become the book that I will rate at the top of my 2023 list. Hot Mess Summer is a sexy, steamy, romantic book full of friendships, finding yourself, and being true to yourself book. I LOVE this book!!!

Declan and Nicole are friends with sparks and heat from the first meeting. As adventure buddies, they continued to explore the world around them going on adventures and trying new things. The heat between these two was off the pages hot and I was so excited to see how it would all play out. Could they stay just friends, or would they have to follow their lust and find out just how adventurous they could be together?

Hot Mess Summer is phenomenal. The friendships are amazing, and the relationships are unique and fun. I could not stop reading this book and devoured it while hoping that this would not be a one-time visit to Chatemup, Massachusetts.

“You are my greatest adventure.”

Romance writer and twice divorced Nicole “Writer Girl” Ross has fallen into a slump with her writing. With her deadline quickly approaching, she decides to get away for the summer. Impulsively she purchases a cottage in the small fishing village of Chatemup, Massachusetts. She never expected to fall for her brainstorming and adventure buddy who isn’t interested in a relationship.

“You’re everything, Nic. Your laugh, your smile, that wild hair. I’ve never met anyone like you, and this thing between us is unstoppable. We’re not just you and me anymore. We’re us, and I don’t want to lose how far we’ve come just because I was an idiot or because you’re moving away…”

Declan “Dimple Dude” Miller’s life was a hot mess. He doesn't have time for a relationship, between his ex-wife, his family, and his fishing business he stays busy. Nevertheless, he can’t seem to get Nicole off his mind, and eventually, their connection is too strong to avoid.

Hot Mess Summer is a fun and light standalone book by Melissa Foster. It was everything I would expect from one of Ms. Foster’s books: emotional, likable characters, family drama, and witty dialogue. I loved watching their friendship grow and their slow-burning romance ignite. The chemistry between Nic and Declan was off the charts, and they made the perfect couple. Their first time meeting each other was so cute and I loved their nicknames for each other. This was the perfect book for a day at the beach. I highly recommend this book and hope to see future books from the Chatemup characters.

A fun romance story of two people with complicated lives, who start as friends and eventually find love, a really lovely summer read that I very much enjoyed!

Hot Mess Summer is a lighthearted story with some depth. I appreciated the more mature take on love and relationships. It was mind-boggling, though, just how many men seemed to be competing for the MC’s attentions- but there was one clear winner from very early on.

This is great choice for when you’re in the mood for a nice beach read anytime throughout the year.

Thank you Melissa Foster, Montlake, and NetGalley for providing this ARC for review consideration. All opinions expressed are my own.

Nicole buys a house sight unseen and decides to live there for the summer. After a nasty divorce she just needs a fresh start. She is in town for a hot second before she dumps coffee down the front of Declan's shirt. Since this is a small town, they can't help but run into each other. All the time. A romance quickly blossoms but what will happen when she leaves at the end of the summer? Can they find a way to keep their love alive?

I have this thing about stories with actual full-grown adults acting like full-grown adults and this book delivers! Both Nicole and Declan have a past that they talk about and deal with. Both of them have demanding careers that don't define them but are super important to them. When they hit a roadblock in their relationship, they might fight but they end up talking and working together to become a stronger couple. There isn't really a bad guy in the story but there are a lot of people who put pressure on Nicole and Declan from the outside. Both of them have a big growth curve that makes sense.

This is a contemporary romance set in a small fishing town. There is a lot of family drama. The biggest compliment I can give this book is that I wasn't tempted to speed read or skip any sections just to get it done faster. I enjoyed the entire ride. I will definitely read more from this author in the future.

I will admit that enjoyed this book much more than I anticipated that I would. It’s a very light & breezy read about two adults finally learning that you can’t pour into others from an empty cup!

𝘼𝙣𝙙 𝙝𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙠𝙨 𝙄'𝙢 𝙙𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙨? 𝙃𝙚'𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙖𝙥𝙥𝙡𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙀𝙫𝙚'𝙨 𝙝𝙪𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙧.

Declan and Nicole are both trying to get by in life while dealing with exes and their own children but after their meet cute, something clicks between them which may just prove to be stronger than either of them.

I love Melissa Foster's books but unfortunately, this one missed the mark for me. The book for me was a little too slow and a little too one-sided for my liking. I found myself disliking the characters more than I liked them.

I am sure there are many other readers out there that will enjoy this book and I am happy that you have given the book and the author's work a chance.

Aaron Shedlock and Ava Erickson both did a good job of bringing this audiobook to life.

HOT MESS SUMMER by Melissa Foster is Declan and Nicole's small-town, single mom, single dad, military, meet cute story told from the dual first-person point of view.

3 Maple Leafs

Does love find you when you stop looking for it? Follow Nic on her journey to find herself after her second divorce. Set in small town Chatemup, this romance novel will have you rooting for Nic to find happiness. Sometimes steamy, the storyline is somewhat predictable, but still engaging. The story development is great and you feel like you've been transported to Chatemup and want to be neighbors with Nic and all her friends. Overall a fun novel about finding your happiness.

This book takes you on an adventure—one where you find yourself, the strength you thought you’d lost, and love (including self-love) when you thought you never would again.

Nicole is a 38-year-old woman and twice divorced. She’s also a romance writer, but she thinks she’ll leave the love stories and great sex to her characters.
Declan is protective and loving, but laid-back. Someone who doesn’t care about having a trophy woman on his arm or big, fancy stuff.

Both characters are incredibly real, and flawed. Nothing’s perfect here, and that makes it a perfect story. Does that make sense? It does in my head.

Nicole needs to get out of the town where she was with her ex and let go of the memories of that toxic relationship. She decides to buy a seaside cottage in a small town. Bold move for an introvert who keeps to herself and her writing.
However, a chance meeting with a guy—and his dimples—at a local coffee shop changes all that. 

Turns out the guy is pretty amazing. He even helps her plan out her novel—one she’s been struggling with. In doing so, he keeps coming closer, just like a romance hero.

The chemistry they have is undeniable. He says all the right things. He loves her for her.
Until they know they're ready for more than friendship.

I’m so happy this book has older characters because I don’t see a lot of those. It’s like love and smexy times are exclusive to twenty-year-olds with six-pack abs and perky everything. Guess what? It’s not. And there’s something to be said about Declan’s experience and what he shows Nic.

All her insecurities are washed away because he loves all of her. And my single, battered, and bruised heart, and "natural" body couldn’t be happier.

The small town is amazing. The story has minimal angst, but there’s a lot of learning involved—about themselves and others.

It only takes one summer, even if it's a hot mess one and filled with hot mess people, to change everything. To show you you're worth it, to show you you always have been.

Nicole is looking to change things up and get away from her life and move on her ex, so she buys a beach cottage and plans to spend the summer there and try to work through her writer's block. There are new friends to be made and plenty of men that she grabs the attention of. But she's not looking for a relationship, she's enjoying doing what she wants, when she wants. There's one guy she meets that occupies her thoughts and that's Declan. Seems like his life is more of a mess than Nicole's. They enjoy spending time together; Declan is her adventure partner and they even brainstorm idea for her book. Definitely an attraction between them but with all the baggage they both have can they be more than friends?? Ms. Foster's writing style is different in this book than her others and it does take some getting used to, but story is good, and we get some laughs along the way. I received an ARC from Grey's Promotion and am voluntarily leaving my review.

This was my first Melissa Foster book and certainly won't be my last.

Romance writer Nicole buys a summer house in a little fishing village after a turbulent few years and 2 ex husbands!, there she is embraced by the town folk and all their little quirks. She meets Declan, the local fish peddler and the towns white knight in the coffee shop when she throws coffee on him.

He is a hot mess and is determined to have a new adventure buddy in Nicole.

This book it was light-hearted, but also included some tough topics but also some laugh out loud moments

I really enjoyed Hot Mess Summer by Melissa Foster! It is totally different than what Melissa normally writes. The characters are older and have young adult children to deal with. It felt like an adult coming of age book, with two divorces for Nic and one for Declan, and how they move on from them and come together. The banter between them is hilarious, and they are there for each other and understand what each other is going through in their personal lives. It makes you want to get away to a small town and flirt over a bonfire!

4.5*

I had high hopes for this book. I mean the author said a few times that her inspo was Jeffrey Dean Morgan for Declan and boy oh boy did this book deliver with the hotness. I mean the slow burn at the beginning was eating me alive. Declan should come with a warning. That man has a mouth on him. I swear my fingers were burning while I was turning the pages to get to the first kiss.

I'm not sure just how to describe Nic. She was feisty, funny and I absolutely loved her easy nature. Despite wanting to stay man-free, something draws her toward Declan. Despite all his warnings and sorta kinda red flags, they fall fast and hard for each other. But their lives are a mess and they'll have to put just a little more effort before they can simply be happy.

This book was a great way to forget about my problems and simply enjoy reading about all the mess our MCs needed to work through before they ended up happy and together.

Hot Mess Summer was a funny and bittersweet look into a summer when Nicole, twice- divorced, moved to the beach house intended to be her writing cave and getaway she purchased and carefully had decorated over the past months until she could move in for the summer.
While she's struggling to coax her muse into talking to her again, she's also discovered that having found herself, she's apparently a magnet for single men.(Ironic, since she's finally made peace with who she is and her independence and isn't looking for anything more than friendship. )
She finds friendship with Declan, a local silver fox, also single, and is greatly relieved when he lets her know he's single, not looking, and that he's the hot mess with family demands and work pulling him in every direction, but as they vow to remain friends, they also become 'adventure buddies', and thus begins the slippery slope into romance.
I liked Nicole's steadfast responsibility without sacrificing her ability to have fun and meet the folks who slowly form her new, found, family. I also enjoyed the honesty, sometimes painful, she and Declan share.
Declan is charming as can be, a delicious man who is romantic, thoughtful, funny, and while imperfect, willing to look in the mirror to see his own flaws, not just those of folks around him.
I couldn't see how these two would get their happy ending, but the magic of Melissa Foster did it in style!
Laugh a little, cry a little, but most of all love a lot when you pick this book up.
Five stars for sure!

Struggling to come up with the words for this one.

I love everything I’ve read by Foster so I knew going in I would like this one. What I didn’t know is just how all of the emotions and feelings would grab me. The way Declan & Nic are so open with their feelings is a beautiful thing.

This is not a part of any of the Foster series, but it’s written just as well as all of those. There’s plenty of laugh out loud moments and plenty of spicy moments.

Such a great story!!

I had a little difficulty getting into this as I felt the beginning was full of the minutia of Nicole finding her new life as a divorced single parent in a new town. I was also overwhelmed with the introduction of all her new neighbours. But once Declan’s voice was aired, I became more interested as the focus became more about the budding relationship between Nicole and Declan. I loved that the MC’s were both older. I even liked that their kids were older. While this is a steamy romance story, this book reads more like a chick lit since there is a lot of personal growth for both Nicole and Declan.

>>> A huge thank you to Melissa Foster and NetGalley for my eARC of this incredible friends-to-lovers romance. Of course, all thoughts included in this review are entirely my own!

Friends-to-lovers is one of my favorite tropes and I loved how things progressed with twice-divorced, Nicole and her adventure buddy, Declan.

The banter between these two is INSANELY hilarious (and spicy, from time to time). I loved the welcoming, small town community that Nic becomes a part of. I would move to Chatemup in a heartbeat!

Declan is a sexy, self-proclaimed hot mess and white knight to all in need. Even though both he and Nic say they aren't looking for a relationship, the chemistry between them is undeniable.

I loved the inside look at a writer's lifestyle, too. As a wannabe author, I could picture myself writing in a cozy little coffeeshop in a quaint beach town.

The main reason I picked this book up was how Melissa described it on Instagram. Loosely based on her summer of 2021? Yes, please! But then I fell in love with Nic and Declan, and they won me over like any other hero/heroine she's written.

I love love LOVED this book and highly recommend it to all Melissa Foster fans (and all romance fans, as well!). Go out and get a copy NOW! You won't regret it 😘

It’s not often I get to read a story with characters in their late 30s and 40s, but this was one of those stories and it was such a fun read.⁣
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Both, divorced with children, trying to find who they are again later in life. One a writer, one owning a fishing business. Neither looking for love, only wanting friendship; but being so drawn to one another they can’t fathom the other on a date with anyone else.⁣
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So they become summer friends, to Seggsy time friends to lovers; weaving through all the other dynamic relationships in their lives with ex’s, parents, friends and their own children.⁣
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Still always finding each other, time and time again.⁣
The Girl Scout cookie moment had me dying.⁣
I adored this story. ⁣
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Dès le début de ma lecture, j'ai été captivée par l'histoire. Une histoire de cendrillon revisiter mais malheureusement le prince Unseelie n'a rien d'un prince charmant.

J'aime beaucoup le personnage d'Ella. Elle ne se laisse pas faire, elle a énormément de courage et de caractère.

Mon avis est mitigé concernant Thorn Ardmore. Je l'ai adoré à certains moments mais déteste à la fin de ce premier tome.

Leur relation est très compliquée, Ella qui essaie de fuir ou de le tuer, lui qui cache bien son jeu. Leur "relation" prend un tournant auquel je ne m'attendais pas du tout à la fin de ce premier tome.

J'ai vraiment hâte de connaître la suite de l'histoire et de savoir et de leur relation.

J'ai adoré ce premier tome. 😍😍